Implementing safe motherhood: a low‐cost intervention to improve the management of eclampsia in a referral hospital in Malawi

• Published in: BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology 2010-11, Vol.117 (12), p.1553-1557
• Main Authors: Drost, E, van Lonkhuijzen, LRCW, Meguid, T, Landis Lewis, D, Zeeman, GG
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Convulsions & seizures; Costs and Cost Analysis; Diseases of mother, fetus and pregnancy; Eclampsia; Eclampsia - economics; Eclampsia - therapy; Female; Guideline Adherence; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Hospitalization - economics; Humans; magnesium sulphate; Malawi; Medical Records; Medical sciences; Monitoring systems; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Preeclampsia; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Outcome; Pregnancy. Fetus. Placenta; Professional Practice - standards; quality of care; Referral and Consultation - economics; safe motherhood; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1470-0328; 1471-0528
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2010.02691.x

Please cite this paper as: Drost E, van Lonkhuijzen L, Meguid T, Landis Lewis D, Zeeman G. Implementing safe motherhood: a low‐cost intervention to improve the management of eclampsia in a referral hospital in Malawi. BJOG 2010;117:1553–1557. We evaluated the effect of so‐called monitoring and treatment charts on the management of eclampsia in a referral hospital in Malawi. Baseline characteristics, clinical management, as well as overall maternal and perinatal outcome were compared by reviewing the medical files of two groups, before and after introduction of the charts in 2006. The use of the charts has resulted in improved monitoring of women with eclampsia and may have contributed to the reduction in the planned prelabour caesarean section rate from 87% to 33%, as more women underwent induction of labour after stabilisation (P = 0.020). Overall maternal and perinatal outcomes were similar.